2024 Epoch NPB set

Another set that I received in the box from ZenMarket earlier this week was the 2024 Epoch NPB set.  This is the seventh edition of Epoch's flagship set and it's a bit of a departure from the previous ones.  The big difference is that the set has dropped considerably in size.  All of the previous sets were either 432 or 444 cards which worked out to 36 players per team along with a 12 card "Legendary Players" subset (not every set had the "Legendary Player" subset which is why some of them were 432 cards while the ones with the subset were 444).  This year's set is only 348 cards, a drop of over 20%.  

The set once again has a 12 card "Legendary Player" subset which leave 336 cards for active players.  That breaks down to 28 cards per team which is one more card per team than BBM had in their 1st Version set.  I don't think that's a coincidence as one of Epoch's selling points is that they had more players in their set than BBM did.  (Of course, BBM's "flagship" is actually three sets - 1st Version, 2nd Version and Fusion - so taken as a whole, BBM's got more players,)

As you'd expect, the set all the big names - Munetaka Murakami,, Roki Sasaki, Kazuma Okamoto, Chusei Mannami, Kensuke Kondoh, etc.  Each team's entire rookie class (2023 draft class - regular phase only, not development players) is also included which takes up a fairly large percentage of each team's checklist (and more so now when it's out of 28 cards instead of 36).  There's 70 players who appear in this set but not BBM's 1st Version set.  The biggest names are probably Ryuhei Sotani, Shion Mastsuo and Rei Takahashi along with foreign players Neftali Soto and Cy Sneed (although all of those guys appear in BBM's 2nd Version set).  There's 58 guys who are in 1st Version but not this set.  The bulk of the missing players appear to be foreign players old (Ariel Martinez, Marwin Gonzalez), new (Franmil Reyels, Jesus Aguilar) and on new teams (Cody Ponce, Kyle Keller).  There's a few other players that kind of surprised me that were missing - Yudai Ohno, Hideaki Wakui and Hotoka Yamakawa.  It was the absence of Yamakawa that really concerned me as I worried that Epoch was doing the same thing I complained about Topps doing - ignoring players who changed teams over the winter.  It turned out to be a needless worry as there's any number of other players who changed teams over the winter who are in the set such as Sachiya Yamasaki, Sho Nakata, the afore-mentioned Takahashi, Yuito Mori and Haruki Nishikawa.  

The cards themselves are very attractive.  I'm very partial to borderless designs and this is the first Epoch NPB set to not have borders.  The photos are a mixed bag which is pretty typical for an Epoch set but there are some nice shots which I think are enhanced by the borderless design.  Here's some examples:

#217

#159

#036

#321

#288

#268

#101

An odd thing about the set is that, like last year, some of the photos Epoch used for non-rookie players were studio shots - posed photographs in front of a white background.  There were three players (Kosei Yoshida, Ryoma Nishikawa and Ginjiro Sumitani) and two managers (Tsuyoshi Shinjyo and Satoshi Nakajima) who had cards like this.   All three players were with new teams so maybe that's why but it doesn't explain why they used studio shots for Shinjyo and Nakajima.  

On a similar line, I found it odd that Epoch used a photo of Hiroki Kokubo from the press conference when he was announced as the new Hawks manager rather than a photo of him in uniform like was used for the other two new managers - Shinnosuke Abe of the Giants and Toshiaki Imae of the Eagles:

#225

The card backs are pretty much the same as in every other Epoch flagship set - biographical information, some text and the last three years worth of stats:

#130 (Munetaka Murakami)

I mentioned earlier that Yamakawa being left out of the set had worried me that Topps' laziness was having a negative effect on other card manufacturers (OK, maybe you have to read between the lines a little to reach that conclusion).  While my fears about Yamakawa are probably unfounded, there is an aspect to this set that I fear has been negatively impacted by Topps - how the set handles the rookie cards.

In the previous sets, Epoch has mostly treated the photos on the rookie cards that same way BBM does - on field shots showing the player in practice or in a game.  Topps, however, the past two years has featured photos from press conferences or studio shots on their rookie cards.  For this set, Epoch has done what Topps has been doing for the rookie cards of about three quarters of the teams.

The rookie cards for four of the teams (Hawks, Fighters, Buffaloes and Lions) have studio photos taken in front of a white background:

#190

Three of the teams (Marines, Eagles and Baystars) use photos from what I think are the introductory press conference for the rookie class:

#079

The Dragons and Tigers rookie cards have the player posed in front of the team's flag (the photos were probably also taken at the team's rookie class introductory press conference):

#023

The remaining three teams (Carp, Swallows and Giants) all used the "traditional" on-field photos (with one exception on the Carp):

#140

It's a minor thing but it kind of bothers me.  I think it's a bit more interesting to see the rookie players in action on the field rather than posing at a press conference.  Especially since the poses all kind of look the same after a while.  

Last and least (in my opinion anyway) is the "Legendary Players" subset.  I feel like these were thrown into the set to give an excuse to have autographed cards of the players available in the packs for the set.  The twelve OB players featured always seem kind of random.  There's one player from each team and this year's group includes Masahiro Yamamoto, Michihiro Ogasawara, Hideki Okajima and Yoshio Itoi.  The card design for the OB cards is exactly the same as for the "regular" player cards:

#348

Despite my misgivings about the possibility of Topps influencing the way Epoch is doing rookie cards, I do like this set quite a bit.  I just wish it was still the size that the previous sets were.

As usual, you can see all the cards over at Jambalaya.